I don't know if I mentioned this already. Two of my friends had huge baskets of flip flops at their weddings. When the reception began they passed out flip flops to every woman and changed into their own flip flops. We partied like we had never partied before. The photos are hilarious.

I *LOVE* this idea!

Courtesy of The Knot. UM NO.
 

Check back a few posts - they also come in flowers.:p

I have to say (and I absolutely hate flip flops!), that would be a wonderful idea! If everybody's comfortable, then the bridge doesn't look quite so much like a slob if she's wearing comfy shoes.

Question: If you don't do the above, does the bride change out of her comfy shoes to her other shoes for the garter pictures?

A lot of brides around here, comfy shoes or not, don't do the garter thing.

Not sure if it's more common to do it or not though. The ones who did may have just taken the shoes off completely since they were sitting.

I hate the idea of garter and flower tossing. Many of the weddings I have attended do not do them because it is seen as an outdated (and ridiculous) tradition.

Random/
The theme at every wedding I have attended has been to finish ALL official/photographer photos before the wedding party enters the reception, so there will be no back-and-forth. Once people change into the comfy shoes (and/or get some MORE dranks in them), there are to be no more official photos taken.

The rest of the photos are taken by friends and family...and sometimes the photographer's photos of the cake cutting that doesn't show the shoes, anyway.

We're not doing a bouquet or garter toss either. There will be only a handful of single people at our wedding aside from children, and I wasn't going to embarrass them by making them get up on the dance floor and compete with children for a bouquet/garter.

But I have a question about the photography thing, DrPhil. You mean your friends don't have the photographer take any photos during the reception? Up here it's common for couples to take the posed shots prior to the wedding, but we certainly have the photographer at the reception, too. My photographer will be with us for eight hours.

The weddings I've been to eschew the professional photographer at the reception for a family friend with a decent camera or sometimes disposable cameras at the tables with a box to put them in at the end of the party. You end up with a lot of 'crap' but you get a large quantity for a low cost and usually some fun pictures in the process.

I haven't seen the professional wandering the reception the way the photographers did at our formals looking for pics.

That's wonderful. :)

One of my friend's photographers was very visible during the reception and he took some awesome photos (he was the best photographer EVER--and he and his crew were cuties). But, the photos that he took once the reception started were informal, meaning the bridal party and attendees weren't prompted or posing. He just went with the flow and did what he was paid royally to do. I didn't even notice the photographers at the other weddings that I attended, so their presence was very informal--and/or they were busy at the open bar.

I make the informal and formal distinction because some people do the awkward thing of taking formal photographer photos during the reception. I remember a wedding years ago where the wedding party was summoned to leave the reception to take photos outside. That was annoying as people had already let their hair down both literally and figuratively. I don't know if the photographer forgot or they had always planned to do it that way.

These are the kind of photos I'm talking about. No posed shots during the reception. A good photographer doesn't need the couple to pose to get good shots. My photographer kicks ass, btw (have to brag about her a little). She's a master at photographing the "little things" about people. Check out the latest on her blog here: http://libbylewisphotography.com/blog/

And you are a great PR person for her. :D

I hate photos anyway and I'm thrilled when photographers are done taking photos of the wedding party. The key to me is for everyone to enjoy the wedding day and for me that means minimum formality after the ceremony is over.

At the last wedding I went to that had over 100 people, the photography was really outstanding. The photographer did 99% of the posed photography prior to the reception, then took a photo of each table of guests with the bride and groom.

After that, he set up a mini-studio on a balcony, and the bride & groom asked all of the guests to go up for a picture or two. They included the pictures in with the thank you notes. One of the groom's friends is a very nice but somewhat slow man, and he asked me to pose with him. I did, and we got silly (plucking his suspenders, etc) and the photographer now uses that picture as one of his samples.

ETA: I haven't seen the garter part in years - maybe the last 10-15 years. But the bouquet has still been tossed at most (not the above wedding).

Amen!